Money

The Terrible Truth About The U.S. Economy Can No Longer Be Denied

November 5, 2025November 5, 2025 by Michael

For a long time, a lot of people wanted to deny what was happening to us. But now we have reached a point when you can no longer do that and retain your credibility. Job openings have been plummeting, and layoffs have been spiking. Manufacturing activity is way down, and delinquency rates are way up. In fact, the credit card delinquency rate just hit the highest level that we have seen since 2011. Just about everything has gotten significantly more expensive, and America’s food banks are being overwhelmed by vast numbers of hungry people. Nobody can deny any of these things, and now U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is publicly admitting that “there are sectors of the economy that are in recession”…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Stephen Miran, President Trump’s appointee to the Fed’s Board of Governors who is on a temporary leave from his job leading the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, this week struck a downbeat tone about the health of the world’s largest economy. Mr. Bessent went so far as to say some sectors were already contracting. He did not specify which sectors, but high mortgage rates have put housing and adjacent industries such as construction under pressure.

“I think that there are sectors of the economy that are in recession,” Mr. Bessent said on CNN on Sunday. He described the economy as being in a “period of transition” because of a pullback in government spending to reduce the deficit. He called on the Fed to support the economy by cutting interest rates.

Bessent’s job is to put a positive spin on America’s economic performance.

But now we have reached a stage where even he cannot deny the truth.

Just look at what is happening to the shipping industry.

When the economy is booming, the amount of stuff that is being physically moved around goes up.

But when the economy falls on hard times, the amount of stuff that is being physically moved around goes down…

As someone who’s spent decades immersed in the freight and logistics industry, I’ve learned that freight data often tells the story of the broader economy long before traditional indicators catch up. Right now, that data is painting a stark picture: The U.S. economy is entrenched in a goods recession. While consumer spending on services might be holding steady, the movement of physical goods—the lifeblood of manufacturing, retail, and industrial sectors—has ground to a halt. This isn’t speculation; it’s evident in the high-frequency data we track at FreightWaves through our SONAR platform.

Nobody can pretend that this isn’t happening.

I realize that some of you may not want to hear this, but long-haul trucking volumes are down 30 percent on a year over year basis…

The long-haul trucking segment (800+ miles), however, has fallen off a cliff. Year-over-year volumes are down a shocking 30%, a sign that the broader economy is in trouble. Long-haul trucking is more exposed to the energy, manufacturing, auto, and housing segments.

That isn’t a small shift.

That is a monumental collapse.

When Freight Waves stated that long-haul trucking “has fallen off a cliff”, they were not exaggerating.

Manufacturing activity is down too.

In fact, it just declined for the eighth month in a row…

US manufacturing turned down in October on the PMI index, dropping from 49.1 in September to 48.7 in October, marking the eighth consecutive month of contraction. Price pressure may have eased (58 from 61.9), but production (48.2 from 51), inventory (45.8 from 47.7), and deliveries (54.2 from 52.6) have all declined.

Employment in the sector continued to decline (46 from 45.3), and 67% of panelist noted that companies are working on managing their current workforce rather than hiring. Again, lower rates are unlikely to address this structural problem or encourage companies to expand during a contracting business environment. Eight consecutive months of decline should be a warning as manufacturing declines often precede recessions, or in this case, ongoing stagflation.

Since less stuff is being produced, it should be no surprise that cardboard box shipments have fallen to “their lowest levels since the third quarter of 2015”…

Nearly every physical good in the modern economy is transported or stored in a corrugated cardboard box. That’s why box shipments act as a reliable real-time economic barometer, especially very useful now, as the government shutdown enters day 33 and key agencies like the BLS have halted official economic data releases, leaving private high-frequency data sets to fill the void.

The latest box shipment data from Bloomberg, citing a report by the Fibre Box Association, shows some of the weakest volumes in years, reflecting waning consumer sentiment and potentially signaling a subdued holiday shopping season. These shipments were at their lowest levels since the third quarter of 2015.

This is the real economy.

Factories make things and those things are put in cardboard boxes and shipped around the country in trucks.

At every point along our supply chains, activity is slowing down.

So let’s stop pretending.

All over the United States, major employers have been slashing their workforces…

When Starbucks Corp. fired 900 corporate employees in September, economists hardly batted an eye. After all, the coffee chain had already done a February culling as part of new management’s drive to get the Frappuccino maker back on track. In October, Target Corp. eliminated 1,800 roles to help the beleaguered retailer move faster. For each corporate cutback, there’s been a clear explanation: Amazon.com (14,000 corporate jobs) blamed artificial intelligence; Paramount (1,000 workers) just completed a merger; Molson Coors (400 jobs) can’t get carb-conscious consumers to drink enough beer.

Separately, each announcement can be read as a one-off. Yet taken together, some economists worry that the recent spate of cuts is starting to look a little less like individual belt-tightening and more like a warning sign.

Layoffs were up in 2024, and now they are up again in 2025.

Because most Americans are just barely scraping by from month to month, many of those that are losing their jobs are at risk of losing everything.

In this very difficult economic environment, it should be no surprise that vehicle repossessions are expected to hit a level that we haven’t seen since the Great Recession…

Car repossessions are booming as Americans increasingly struggle to pay.

The number of seized cars hit a 14-year high of 2.7 million in 2024, according to data from the Recovery Database Network (RDN), which processes around 90pc of all requests from lenders for repossessions.

Kevin Armstrong, editor of CU Repossession, an industry publication, expects the total will hit three million this year based on current trends, only just shy of the 3.2 million peak seen in 2009.

Things are bad, and 57 percent of Americans expect economic conditions to get even worse next year.

Unfortunately, I think that most Americans are still way too optimistic about what is ahead.

There is no “quick fix” that is going to turn things around, because our system is fundamentally broken.

We consume far more than we produce, a very large percentage of the population has become dependent on the government, and no nation in the entire history of the planet has accumulated as much debt as we have.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize, and the road ahead is not going to be pleasant.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Food Banks All Over The U.S. Are Being Overwhelmed By A Tsunami Of Hungry People

November 4, 2025 by Michael

As grocery prices have risen, demand at food banks throughout the country has surged to very alarming levels. At the end of 2024, I wrote about how demand at food banks had risen to record levels all over the United States. Unfortunately, demand has continued to rise in 2025, and now the government shutdown has shifted America’s hunger crisis into overdrive. Millions of very hungry people are showing up at food banks looking for something to eat, and resources are being stretched to the limit.

There is no area of the nation that is not being affected by this crisis.

For example, it is being reported that food banks in Iowa are experiencing “record demand” during this government shutdown…

Food pantries across Iowa are seeing record demand as families wait for the federal government to restore their food assistance benefits.

So what does “record demand” look like?

Well, at one food bank in Iowa they are serving about twice as many people as usual…

While families wait, many are turning to food pantries for help. At WayPoint Resources in Waukee, the line for food stretched out the door Monday.

“We just opened at noon today. And already in that first hour, we saw double the number of people that we normally see,” said Melissa Stimple, the center’s executive director.

We are seeing similar things happen in other parts of the nation too.

In southwest Texas, one network of food banks is now serving nearly 170,000 people per week…

Eric Cooper, president and CEO of San Antonio Food Bank, which serves 29 counties in southwest Texas, said the number of families seeking help has increased since it was first announced that there would be a disruption in SNAP benefits should the government shutdown continue.

Cooper said San Antonio Food Bank, which is part of the nonprofit organization Feeding America, typically feeds 105,000 to 120,000 people per week but is now seeing close to 170,000 people per week.

When you suddenly go from serving 120,000 people per week to serving 170,000 people per week, it is going to be very difficult to have enough food for everyone.

Often those at the end of food bank lines end up with nothing, and that is why so many people are lining up early.

On Monday, the line at one Bay Area food bank “stretched all the way down the sidewalk”…

On Monday, in a parking lot of Contra Costa College in San Pablo, the line for food stretched all the way down the sidewalk.

“We’re expecting at least 500 families to come out to our distribution,” said program coordinator Geo Dinoso.

When he opened the food line, the crowd was a little hard to believe, but for Dinoso, not very surprising.

In Detroit, “dozens of cars” were “lined around the block” yesterday morning…

On Detroit’s east side, dozens of cars lined around the block at Forgotten Harvest’s Jermaine Jackson Academy drive-thru food pantry Monday morning. It was the location’s first time operating since SNAP funding lapsed this month.

Kim Lewis, who runs the site, said her group faced cold weather and rain to serve more than 250 families.

The “higher demand” was clear – volunteers described cars waiting along Gratiot Avenue hours before the pantry’s opening. Forty minutes after the site closed, the group was still loading up cars, only stopping after supplies depleted.

In Colorado, approximately 100 vehicles were lined up at a food bank in Greeley before the doors were even opened…

About 100 cars lined up along H Street near Weld Food Bank in Greeley on Monday morning before the organization opened its doors, their drivers and passengers waiting to pick up food on the third day of a lapse in funding for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Staff and volunteers worked through a typical lunch break to meet demand, maneuvering shopping carts full of food to their awaiting recipients. By the end of the day, the food bank served about 2,200 people, according to Weston Edmunds, the food bank’s director of marketing and communications.

This is what our country looks like now.

Millions of formerly middle class Americans are now in desperate need of food.

I have been ranting about the destruction of the middle class for years, but a lot of people out there didn’t take me seriously.

Now look at what has happened.

If you think that we are facing this crisis just because of the current government shutdown, you are way off.

One food bank in Dayton, Ohio was experiencing a dramatic spike in demand “long before the shutdown ever happened”…

Howard said the increased need at the Pantry started long before the shutdown ever happened, and it’s only gotten worse as a result.

“Year to date we’re 30% higher than last year. This week alone we signed up 23 new families,” she said.

The Pantry served 18,000 people in 2024, 60% of whom which were adults over 60 years old and children under 18.

As I have carefully documented, hunger has been rising in the United States for years.

And now we are rapidly getting to a point where there simply will not be enough food for everyone.

On Monday, large numbers of people lined up to get some food at a facility in Portland. Unfortunately, those that were waiting at the end of the line faced the possibility of ending up with nothing because there just wasn’t enough food…

The situation has led to unprecedented demand at local food providers, such as the Blanchet House in Northwest Portland, where lines stretched two blocks on Monday morning as people waited in the rain for a meal.

Julia Showers, communications director for the Blanchet House, noted the unusual demand: “We’re seeing lines, historic lines. Our staff had to go out before we closed the doors and just let everyone know that we have to get a line here. Some people might not get a plate.”

The longer this government shutdown continues, the worse things will get.

The same thing could be said about our air traffic crisis.

According to ABC News, the U.S. Department of Transportation “might be forced to shut down the airspace in certain parts of the country if the government shutdown continues into next week”…

The Department of Transportation might be forced to shut down the airspace in certain parts of the country if the government shutdown continues into next week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Tuesday.

“So if, if you bring us to a week from today, Democrats, you will see mass chaos,” he said. “You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancelations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have the air traffic controllers.”

We have never seen anything quite like this before.

Air traffic controllers are required to work without pay through the government shutdown, but vast numbers of them are choosing not to show up for work…

Nearly 50% of all major air traffic control facilities face staffing shortages, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Air traffic controllers are required to work without pay for the duration of the shutdown.

About 13,000 air traffic controllers are currently working without pay, according to the FAA. On Friday, the agency said that 80% of New York area staff had called out.

Hopefully the government shutdown will be resolved soon and air traffic will return to normal.

But even if the government shutdown ends, America’s growing food crisis is not going to go away.

Food prices will continue to rise, and global food supplies are just going to continue to get even tighter.

There are multiple long-term trends that are playing havoc with global food production.

I warned that this would result in higher food prices in wealthy western nations, and that is precisely what has transpired.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

We are going to continue to lose valuable top soil, fertilizer prices will continue to spike, weather patterns are only going to get crazier, and our planet will continue to become increasingly unstable.

On top of everything else, we continue to poison our air, our water and our soil in countless ways.

There is only one way that all of this is going to end, and I don’t have to tell you that it isn’t going to be pretty.

Will Payment Of 50 Percent Of Food Stamp Benefits Be Enough To Keep Widespread Rioting And Looting From Breaking Out?

November 3, 2025November 3, 2025 by Michael

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The good news is that 50 percent of food stamp benefits will be paid out during the month of November. The bad news is that a lot of food stamp recipients are still extremely angry. Food stamp protests are already starting to happen, videos are being posted on social media that show people how to take groceries right out the front door of a Walmart, and one woman is claiming that “everyone was stealing” when she visited her local grocery store. Of course if you live in an area where food stamp use is very low, conditions may seem perfectly normal. It just depends on where you live. Hopefully the government shutdown will be resolved very soon, because if we get to a point where no more food stamp money is coming from Washington at all things could get really crazy.

On Monday, we learned that the Trump administration has agreed to use 4.6 billion dollars in a contingency fund to “cover 50% of eligible households’ current allotments” in the month of November…

In a declaration submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, Patrick Penn, a Department of Agriculture official who oversees SNAP, said the administration “intends to deplete SNAP contingency funds completely and provide reduced SNAP benefits for November 2025.”

There is roughly $4.6 billion in the contingency fund that can be used to cover November benefit payments, according to Penn. Officials have said fully covering those benefits would require roughly $9 billion. The $4.6 billion will be used to “cover 50% of eligible households’ current allotments,” Penn said.

Will this be enough to stop widespread rioting and looting from breaking out this month?

I hope so.

But we are already seeing lots of videos on social media that allegedly show people stealing food from grocery stores.

If food stamp recipients start receiving some money, that could help settle things down. Unfortunately, we are being warned that it may take some states “weeks” or even “months” to distribute reduced benefit amounts…

In his declaration with the court in Rhode Island, USDA official Patrick Penn said that getting SNAP benefits into the hands of recipients could face delays, since states will have to rework their systems to provide partial payments.

“Given the variation among State systems, some of which are decades old, it is unclear how many States will complete the changes in an automated manner with minimal disruption versus manual overrides or computations that could lead to payment errors and significant delays,” Penn wrote.

He added: “For at least some States, USDA’s understanding is that the system changes States must implement to provide the reduced benefit amounts will take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months.”

This is yet another example of how incompetent government agencies have become.

How long does it take to calculate a 50 percent reduction in benefits?

This isn’t exactly rocket science.

There could be millions of food stamp recipients that have to wait for an extended period of time for their reduced November benefits, and that certainly isn’t going to make them very happy.

Meanwhile, the USDA has specifically warned grocery stores that they must not give special discounts to food stamp recipients…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has told grocery stores not to give special discounts to around 42 million Americans who use food stamps.

An email sent by the department to stores, posted on X by Catherine Rampell, co-host of MSNBC’s The Weekend, said: “You cannot treat SNAP-EBT customers differently than any other customer.”

Was that really necessary?

There are a lot of people out there that are really hurting right now.

Yes, it is certainly true that there are some that choose to abuse the system.

For example, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins just admitted that thousands upon thousands of people have been illegally using food stamps…

“We have found thousands and thousands of illegal use of the EBT card, we have been moving people off of SNAP, we’ve got about 700,000 people that we’ve moved off SNAP since the president took office, and we’ve arrested about 118 people,” Rollins said.

She added that investigators also discovered about 5,000 dead people who were still receiving benefits.

There should be consequences for abusing the system.

I think that is something that we should all be able to agree on.

One woman posted a video in which she claimed that she actually gets $4,194 in food stamp benefits each month.

I have no idea how she is able to get that much money.

Is she telling the government that she has 12 kids or something?

People like that ruin the system for everyone else.

There really are millions of Americans that do not have enough food to eat every month, and the food stamp program is an important lifeline for them.

Unfortunately for them, it does not appear that this government shutdown is going to end any time soon.

During an interview with CBS News, President Trump explained that the government shutdown will finally end when the Democrats decide to give up…

“I’m not going to do it by being extorted by the Democrats who have lost their way,” Mr. Trump said. “There’s something wrong with these people.”

Mr. Trump said he believes that Democrats will eventually capitulate and vote to end the shutdown.

“And if they don’t vote, that’s their problem,” he said.

I don’t think that the Democrats are going to give up for quite a while.

I think that the Democrats feel like they have an opportunity to turn the political mood in this country in their favor.

So for now, millions of food stamp recipients will just have to stretch their meals as far as they can…

Christophe Niyibizi, 67, said he and his wife had begun limiting themselves to one full meal each day, in midafternoon, to try and make their food last longer. After spending $14 on Saturday for a few groceries, he had $83 remaining — and no way of knowing if his next monthly benefit would show up as scheduled in 10 days.

Placing his small grocery bag into his car, Mr. Niyibizi shrugged and smiled when asked if he felt hungry. A U.S. citizen who immigrated to the United States from the Democratic Republic of the Congo a dozen years ago, he recalled how he had prayed, while still in Africa, that he would make it to America one day.

“This country is a good country, 100 percent,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve had this problem.”

If we get to Thanksgiving and the government shutdown has not ended, I think that things could get really wild.

But it doesn’t have to get to that stage.

If our politicians in Washington can work things out, we could potentially avoid a scenario in which we see widespread rioting and looting.

The level of anger among America’s impoverished masses is rising very quickly, and if it rises high enough we could see a very frightening explosion.

Something Just Broke – It Appears That A Liquidity Crisis Is Upon Us, And That Is Really Bad News For The Financial Markets

November 2, 2025November 2, 2025 by Michael

What is the Fed not telling us? The numbers clearly indicate that big trouble is brewing in the banking system. I wish that I could specifically tell you which banks are in the most trouble, but at this stage we simply aren’t being told anything. They probably figure that the best approach is to try to keep everyone as calm as possible. But they won’t be able to keep a lid on what is going on indefinitely, and when word finally gets out people could start to panic.

In recent weeks, bank reserves have fallen to alarmingly low levels.

In fact, last week they fell to the lowest level that we have seen in more than four years…

US bank reserves have crashed to a four-year low, plunging to about $2.8 trillion, according to the latest Federal Reserve data, sending fresh warning signals across Wall Street and Washington. The steep decline marks the second straight week reserves have stayed below $3 trillion, a critical threshold analysts say could test the banking system’s liquidity strength.

By itself, this doesn’t necessarily signal that we are facing a major crisis.

But everyone agrees that what we are witnessing is certainly unusual.

What is causing far more alarm is what occurred on Friday.

All of a sudden, there was an insane amount of demand for overnight repo cash…

Federal Reserve reportedly pumped about $29.4 billion into the markets via overnight repos.

That’s a big number and it signals something I’m watching closely. According to the data for “Overnight Repurchase Agreements — Treasury Securities Purchased by the Fed” the figure for Oct 31, 2025 is $29.400 billion.

In other words: The Fed is quietly stepping in and stepping up.

To me, this is clear evidence that something just broke.

Who suddenly needed that much cash?

And why did they need it?

The chart that I have posted below comes directly from the Federal Reserve, and it should chill you to the core…

But that wasn’t the end of it.

By the end of the day on Friday, it was quite obvious that something extremely strange had just happened…

Federal Reserve liquidity facilities caught fire on Friday as month-end pressures pushed a key lending tool to a record level of usage.

The Fed’s Standing Repo Facility lent a total of $50.35 billion on Friday to eligible financial firms in two separate availabilities, the highest-ever usage since the tool was put in place in 2021 to provide fast loans collateralized with Treasury or mortgage bonds. At the same time, financial firms also parked a considerable amount of cash on Fed books, with the reverse repo facility seeing inflows of $51.8 billion.

So what is the bottom line?

The bottom line is that it very much smells like a major crisis is brewing.

But let’s wait and see what happens on Monday.

If we see figures on Monday that are fairly normal, perhaps we have more time before things start breaking loose in the markets.

However, if we see even larger numbers on Monday, hold on tight.

In either case, the financial markets will not be able to stay disconnected from the real economy forever.

Just like in 2008 and 2009, large employers all over the United States have been conducting mass layoffs. Sadly, this time around that includes some of our largest and most prosperous employers…

The Trump administration offered buyouts to the entire federal workforce this year, aiming to reduce it by as much as 10%. Roughly 75,000 workers accepted. More recently, Amazon, UPS and Target all announced private-sector layoffs.

Buyouts can sound tempting. A five-figure severance package might be the most money a worker has ever seen in one paycheck. But it’s also the last paycheck your employer will give you.

We haven’t seen anything like this in many years.

Bankruptcies are soaring, delinquency rates are spiking, thousands of stores and restaurants are permanently shutting their doors, and just about everything just keeps getting more expensive.

What we are now facing is being described as “Depression 2.0”.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning and most of the population understands this.

In fact, one recent survey discovered that 57 percent of Americans expect economic conditions to get even worse over the next year.

Many of you are going to be facing some very hard decisions in the coming months.

If you currently have a job that you highly value, I would recommend holding on to it as tightly as you can.

But if you feel that it is absolutely necessary to go somewhere else, you will just have to do what you have to do.

Just understand that if you leave your current position it will not be easy to find a new one at all.

In 2008 and 2009, millions of Americans lost their jobs.

Many of them didn’t have anything to fall back on, and so large numbers of them also lost their homes.

This is one of the reasons why it is so critical to have a sizable emergency fund. At this point, even the mainstream media is stressing the importance of this…

Most people live paycheck to paycheck, and when the economy crashes, that leaves no room to breathe. Having three to six months of essential expenses tucked away can make all the difference when cash flow dries up or jobs disappear overnight.

Keep your emergency savings in an easily accessible account, not tied up in volatile investments. It’s not about hoarding—it’s about buying time and peace of mind. When others panic, you’ll have the stability to make smart, calm decisions.

I expect things to start moving very quickly now.

If the problems in our banking system bubble to the surface and start becoming highly visible, it will create a lot of fear.

And it is just a matter of time before our absurdly overvalued stock market takes a dramatic tumble.

Of course all of this is happening at a time when so many other elements of “the Perfect Storm” are coming together.

We are right on the brink of multiple major wars, global food supplies are rapidly getting tighter, we are being told that the next worldwide pandemic could break out at any moment, and on average the U.S. has been getting hit by a “billion dollar disaster” about every two weeks.

I expect so much chaos to be unleashed during the weeks ahead, and that means that we should expect the turmoil that we are currently witnessing on Wall Street to escalate quite a bit more.

57 Percent Of Americans Expect The Economy To Get Even Worse Than It Is Right Now

October 31, 2025October 31, 2025 by Michael

After many years of steady economic deterioration, a very dark cloud of economic pessimism hangs over our country. The cost of just about everything has been rising faster than paychecks have been, thousands of stores are closing all over the nation, and large corporations are conducting mass layoffs on a scale that we haven’t seen since the Great Recession. Most of the population is just barely scraping by in this very harsh economic environment, and I have been hearing from so many people that are quite frightened about what is going to happen next.

Unfortunately, it isn’t just a small segment of the population is that is scared about the future.

According to a survey that was recently conducted by Deloitte, a whopping 57 percent of U.S. adults expect the U.S. economy to get even weaker during the year ahead…

As the peak holiday shopping season approaches, most U.S. consumers have a downbeat outlook on the economy, according to an annual Deloitte survey published Wednesday.

Most consumers surveyed — 57% — said they expect the economy to weaken in the year ahead, the consulting firm found in a poll of roughly 4,000 respondents. That compares with 30% who expected a weaker economy ahead of the year-ago holiday season and 54% in 2008, one of the years of the Great Recession.

It marks the most negative economic outlook since Deloitte began tracking that in 1997.

Read that last sentence again.

Americans were not even this pessimistic during the dark days of 2008 and 2009.

That is stunning.

As we move into the month of November, there was a tremendous amount of concern that food stamp benefits were about to be cut off.

But two federal judges just ruled that the federal government must use an emergency fund to keep food stamp payments going…

Two federal judges said Friday that the Trump administration must tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to at least partially cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November.

The rulings from judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island reject a controversial US Department of Agriculture claim that it could not use a contingency fund, which the agency says has $5.3 billion remaining in it, to help cover the benefits amid the month-long government shutdown.

The SNAP program costs roughly $9 billion a month, so the orders will not cover all of the needed payments for November.

The emergency fund does not have enough money to pay full benefits for the month of November, but at least those that are relying on food stamps should be able to get some money this month.

Meanwhile, those that purchase health insurance through the ACA exchanges are about to be hit with absolutely massive premium hikes…

Congress has yet to extend the enhanced subsidies that make insurance premiums cheaper for about 22 million of the 24 million Americans who buy insurance over the ACA exchanges.

Recipients’ health premiums are set to increase by 114% in 2026, on average, without the enhanced subsidies, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.

Of course those that don’t get their health insurance through the ACA exchanges are being hit by dramatically higher health insurance premiums too.

Our system is deeply broken and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

For those that simply cannot afford health insurance at this point, my advice is very simple.

Try not to get sick.

Because if you do get sick, they will try to squeeze every single penny out of you that they possibly can.

In fact, just about every industry is trying to squeeze as much out of us as they possibly can, and we are just about squeezed out at this point.

And now here come more layoffs.

On Wednesday, General Motors announced that it will be laying off a large number of workers as we head into the holiday season…

General Motors (GM) said Wednesday it is laying off 1,750 workers indefinitely in the coming months and temporarily cutting 1,670 others as it scales back electric vehicle production.

The Detroit-based automaker said it is scaling back production plans and realigning electric vehicle capacity at Factory Zero, its flagship electric vehicle assembly plant in Michigan, in response to the slower near-term electic vehicle adoption and an evolving regulatory environment.

In a regulatory filing from earlier this month, the automaker indicated it would incur a $1.6 billion loss for the third quarter of 2025 that is connected to a plan to scale back or adjust its electric vehicle production and factories.

A few days ago, I listed a bunch of other major corporations that are also conducting mass layoffs.

We haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Recession.

Of course some areas of the country are already experiencing recession conditions.

According to Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, the list of states that have fallen on hard times is rapidly growing…

According to Zandi, the following states are in a recession:

Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Kansas, Massachusetts, Washington, Georgia, New Hampshire, Maryland, Rhode Island, Illinois, Delaware, Virginia, Oregon, Connecticut, South Dakota, New Jersey, Maine, Iowa, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

It’s more sobering news for the economy, as last week U.S. hiring plans fell to their lowest level since 2009.

And just like we witnessed during the Great Recession, home values are taking a very alarming turn…

Of the 20 major metros tracked by Case-Shiller, nine recorded outright price declines, while 13 rose more slowly than the national average.

‘August’s data shows US home prices continuing to slow,’ Nicholas Godec, head of fixed income tradables and commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices, told Realtor.com.

‘For the fourth straight month, home values have lost ground to inflation, meaning homeowners are seeing their real wealth decline even as nominal prices inch higher.’

Florida and Texas were hit hardest. Tampa saw the steepest drop — down 3.3 percent year-on-year — and has now notched ten straight months of falling prices.

I believe that we have reached a very significant turning point.

In some areas of the nation, I expect that home prices will fall substantially during the months ahead.

I also expect foreclosures to surge like they did in 2008 and 2009 as many more Americans lose their jobs.

The U.S. economy eventually recovered from the horrifying days of 2008 and 2009, but the truth is that we are moving into a much different scenario this time around.

All of the elements of “the Perfect Storm” are coming together, and I am convinced that the months ahead will be extremely chaotic.

It Has Begun – Some Crazed Lunatics Are Already Storming Into Grocery Stores And Taking Whatever They Want

October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by Michael

I suppose that we should not be surprised, because they told us exactly what they intended to do. For weeks, food stamp recipients have been posting videos on social media telling us what will happen if their food stamp benefits are cut off. We have been warned that they will go to their local grocery stores and fill up their carts just as they normally do. We have also been warned that there will be violence if anyone tries to stop them when they leave without paying. A lot of people out there were convinced that these lunatics were bluffing, but the truth is that what they threatened to do has already started to happen.

In Massachusetts, two crazed women were just arrested for “shoplifting expensive groceries and then attacking employees”…

Two women are facing charges for allegedly shoplifting expensive groceries and then attacking employees at a Market Basket in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, over the weekend.

Olivia L. Byrd, 37, of Quincy, and Rahjane J. Byrd, 28, of Hyde Park, were each charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery, shoplifting by asportation, and disorderly conduct.

They found out the hard way that stealing groceries is not as easy as TikTok influencers would have us to believe.

In the real world, if you steal things you could end up in prison.

Apparently these two women have expensive tastes, because they were attempting to steal “lobster meat, prime ribeye steaks, and truffle butter”…

Investigators say the Byrds were concealing high-priced items, including lobster meat, prime ribeye steaks, and truffle butter in a bag while shopping.

The women allegedly did not pay for the items at checkout and were confronted by store employees.

The confrontation between store employees and these two women did not go well.

In fact, one of the women hit a store employee with her phone “right in the face”…

“She cracked him hard with that cellphone, right in the face,” said Jeff Cuddy, who filmed the altercation. “And the guy was respectful and responsible, and he just let it go.”

I am glad that they were caught.

Hopefully this will discourage other potential thieves.

But there will inevitably be some people that will be able to get away with stealing food from their local grocery stores.

In Chambersburg, Pennsylvania police are currently looking for a man that walked straight out the front door with a full cart of food…

Police in Chambersburg are looking for a person of interest who was seen on surveillance video leaving a grocery store with a full cart.

According to police, a man filled his cart full of items at the Giant in the 900 block of Wayne Avenue on September 28, and then left without paying.

In 2025, stealing a full cart of food is not a small crime.

Depending on what you select, a full cart of food can easily cost you several hundred dollars these days.

If we start witnessing widespread grocery thefts all over the nation, I think that it won’t be too long before we start seeing armed guards in food stores and armed guards on food delivery trucks.

One particularly foolish woman actually posted a video in which she openly bragged about all of the stuff that she just stole from her local grocery store. When she is finally caught, it will be very easy to convict her…

Four weeks into the federal government shutdown, a woman claiming she’s out of food stamps is bragging online about stealing from a grocery store while urging others to steal at will and “infiltrate” churches to get cash.

The woman who goes by “consiracycutiee” and has a username of @jaalagotanattitude posted her illegal shoplifting exploits on social media, using extremely graphic language.

“Everything out here is yours,” she said. “Whether or not you take it, they call that sh** free will. I call that sh** eminent domain. You know what I’m saying? One thing I learned from the white men: Take it!”

This is the kind of young people that our society is now producing.

I think that says a lot about the condition of our society at this stage.

You can watch footage of her making these shocking comments in this YouTube video.

Sadly, there are millions of others just like her.

When things really start hitting the fan in this country, they aren’t going to hold back.

Any stores that still have self-checkout counters tend to be shoplifting magnets.

In Florida, one woman has been arrested for stealing over a thousand dollars worth of groceries from a Publix in Port Charlotte…

A Port Charlotte woman is accused of stealing more than $1,000 in groceries from a Publix.

According to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, Lisandra Gallardo, 38, was arrested Tuesday after deputies responded to reports of multiple thefts over the course of a month at the Publix on South McCall Road.

CCSO said Gallardo stole from the store by using a duffel bag to hide items and only scanned a couple of products at self-checkout, taking the rest without paying.

A lot of times these people get caught because they just get too greedy.

If you keep going back again and again, eventually somebody is going to notice what you are doing.

Sadly, it won’t just be grocery stores that get hit during the weeks ahead.

In Kansas, one 38-year-old man is being charged with stealing food from an apartment complex “more than a dozen times”…

Police have arrested a 38-year-old man accused of stealing food from a Wichita apartment complex more than a dozen times.

Sedgwick County jail records show Jeremie Adams was booked Tuesday for 15 counts of aggravated burglary and 15 counts of theft. He was held without bond Wednesday morning.

Wichita police say Adams is accused of forcing entry into Eaton Place Apartments at 517 East Douglas and taking food from the common-area pantry without paying. There are 15 confirmed incidents since mid-August.

When people without any moral standards get hungry, they are going to steal.

And if food stamps get cut off nationwide on November 1st, we are going to see a whole lot of very desperate people out there.

The good news is that there seems to be at least some hope that the government shutdown could be resolved soon…

Senators returned to Capitol Hill on Thursday to resume talks aimed at ending the government shutdown, now on its 30th day.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNBC that “a lot more conversations” are happening between rank-and-file members, and suggested that next week’s elections might provide the catalyst needed to end the stalemate.
The Senate is not currently scheduled to vote on the House-passed continuing resolution to end the shutdown on Thursday.

Food stamp payments have never been stopped before.

So we don’t know exactly what will occur if it happens now.

Will there be rioting and looting?

Will the people that have been posting videos on social media follow through on their threats?

In just a few days we may find out whether they meant what they said or not.

As The Government Shutdown Drags On, Here Are 9 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is Shutting Down All Around Us

October 28, 2025October 28, 2025 by Michael

It appears that this government shutdown could go on for a while, and that is not good news for the U.S. economy at all. On day 28 of the shutdown, the U.S. Senate failed to advance a bill to end the shutdown for the 13th consecutive time. They can keep holding more votes, but the outcome will remain the same. We are potentially just days away from a scenario in which approximately 42 million Americans will lose their food stamp benefits, and that could result in widespread chaos all over the nation. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy as a whole continues to move in the wrong direction very rapidly.

At this point, dissatisfaction with the economy has become so pervasive that even CNN is talking about it…

A collective angst is taking root. Maybe you feel it watching the news, scrolling social media, standing in line at the grocery checkout. Something’s off, and maybe it’s been that way for a while, but it hasn’t always been this tense, right?

I am sure that you can feel it too.

People are on edge.

Thousands of stores have been closing all over the nation, the cost of just about everything keeps going up, and shocking mass layoffs are being conducted from coast to coast. The following are 9 signs that the U.S. economy is shutting down all around us…

#1 When the economy is booming, delivery companies are usually thriving and hiring lots of new people. So it is a really bad sign that UPS has chosen to eliminate 48,000 workers…

United Parcel Service has cut 48,000 management and operations positions, the company disclosed Tuesday when it reported earnings.

Of those roles, 14,000 were management positions and 34,000 were jobs in operations. The reductions came through layoffs and buyouts, the company said.

#2 14,000 Amazon employees have been let go in “the first wave” of mass layoffs that are ultimately expected to reduce the number of workers by 30,000…

On Tuesday, Amazon confirmed plans to cut about 14,000 corporate jobs as the online retail giant ramps up spending on artificial intelligence.

It’s the first wave in a mass layoff that’s expected to slash 30,000 Amazon positions, or 10 percent of the corporate staff.

‘Some may ask why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well,’ Beth Galetti, an HR lead at Amazon, wrote in a public note.

#3 Target has announced that approximately 1,000 highly paid corporate workers will be hitting the bricks…

Target is cutting about 1,000 corporate positions and eliminating 800 open roles in an effort to speed up business decision-making and drive growth under its new chief executive, Michael Fiddelke.

Fiddelke, who will succeed Brian Cornell as CEO in February, has been focused on ways to speed up the way corporate teams work, turning the company into a leaner and faster organization to drive innovation. This includes eliminating layers of management.

About 80% of the roles being cut are based in the U.S., with the majority concentrated in the Minneapolis area, where the company is headquartered, and in leadership positions.

#4 Chegg has fallen on really hard times, and so it will be slashing 45 percent of its entire workforce…

Chegg Inc., a Santa Clara-based online learning platform, said Monday it will cut about 45% of its workforce – roughly 388 employees – as it confronts what it calls “the new realities of AI and reduced traffic from Google to content publishers.”

In its official statement, the company said the restructuring plan reflects “a significant decline in Chegg’s traffic and revenue,” which it has attributed to shifts in generative AI and changing search patterns.

#5 Brighter days were supposed to be ahead for Paramount, but we have just learned that about 1,000 jobs are now on the chopping block…

Paramount will slash roughly 1,000 jobs on Wednesday, Fox News Digital has confirmed.

A headcount reduction has been expected since Paramount Global and Skydance merged earlier this year, putting CEO David Ellison in charge of the newly formed Paramount, a Skydance Corporation. Sources familiar with the situation said that “approximately” 1,000 positions will be cut as layoffs begin.

#6 The job cuts that are happening at Nestle are particularly brutal. The new CEO has decided to give the axe to 16,000 loyal employees…

Nestle will cut 16,000 jobs, new CEO Philipp Navratil said on Thursday, as the world’s largest packaged food company seeks to cut costs and win back investor confidence.

The jobs being cut represent 5.8% of Nestle’s around 277,000 employees. Navratil said Nestle had raised its cost savings target to 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.77 billion) from 2.5 billion francs by the end of 2027.

#7 Have you ever heard of a candy company filing for bankruptcy right before Halloween? Yes, that actually just happened…

A hugely popular candy company has filed for bankruptcy just days before Halloween — the biggest candy-buying week of the year.

Candy Warehouse, an online store that sells more than 6,000 types of sweets in bulk to families as well as other businesses, filed for bankruptcy protection on October 24.

The timing is especially striking, coming right before a holiday that’s all about candy.

#8 It is not a good time to be in the baby business. Carter’s is telling us that it now plans to permanently close approximately 150 stores in North America…

Carter’s, the Atlanta-based baby clothing chain behind brands like OshKosh B’gosh, Otter Avenue, and Skip Hop, says it will shut down about 150 stores across North America.

That’s up from its earlier plan to close 100 underperforming locations.

#9 The Westminster Mall was once “the second-highest grossing retail site in the US”, but now it is being shut down forever…

In 1986, it was the second-highest grossing retail site in the US, according to the Times. Chains like Macy’s, Sears, JCPenney, Target, Best Buy, Old Navy, and Spencer’s all had a shop in the mall.

Its over 1 million square foot floor plan spanned two levels and even featured a carousel. It was developed on an old goldfish farm.

But, after 51 years, developers are ending most of the store’s leases and turning the property’s 100-acres into a 3,000-unit housing project.

The primary reason why so many retailers are going belly up is because most U.S. consumers are tapped out.

In fact, almost half of the average paycheck in the United States “is spent within 48 hours of payday”…

Nearly half (48%) of the average American paycheck is spent within 48 hours of payday, with over a third gone in just 12 hours
Millennials spend the fastest, burning through 40% of their earnings within the first 12 hours, which is more than any other generation
Gen Z workers paid $275 in overdraft and late fees over the past year, compared to just $27 for baby boomers, a ten-to-one gap
Among stressed workers, 62% say being paid daily or as they work would improve their financial wellness and cut stress by an average of 57%

We are a nation that is teetering on the brink, and it isn’t going to take much to push us over the edge.

So let us hope that the government shutdown is resolved soon.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that is going to happen.

In just a few weeks, things could look very different than they do now.

There is so much anger percolating under the surface, and we are rapidly approaching a boiling point.

“The Well Has Run Dry”: Are The People That Are Having Epic EBT Meltdowns Serious About What They Plan To Do Next?

October 27, 2025October 27, 2025 by Michael

People all over social media are publicly threatening to steal food once their EBT benefits run out. Some of them are taking it one step further by threatening to get violent with anyone that tries to prevent them from stealing food. So what is our country going to look like if this actually happens on a widespread basis? Today is day 26 of the government shutdown, and there is no end in sight. It appears that food stamp benefits will not be paid out to 42 million Americans at the beginning of November, and nobody is exactly sure what is going to happen next.

Personally, I have never seen as much anger directed toward the federal government as I am seeing right now.

Countless EBT meltdown videos are being posted on social media platforms, and the closer we get to the November 1st deadline the more dramatic they seem to become.

Are these people really serious?

I believe that they are.

When people openly admit that they plan to commit acts that are morally wrong, I tend to believe them.

I know that it isn’t easy out there right now.

I write about the economic suffering in this nation all the time.

But there is no excuse for theft and there is no excuse for violence.

Unfortunately, I think that we are going to see a lot of theft and a lot of violence during the weeks ahead. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, November 1st is a hard deadline because “the well has run dry”…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on its website that SNAP benefits won’t be sent out come Nov. 1 because the program lacks the funding it needs during the ongoing government shutdown.

SNAP, also known as food stamps, is a federal program that provides 42 million Americans monthly benefits to afford healthy food.

“Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1,” a message on USDA’s website as of Oct. 27 says.

Some states are going to continue funding food stamp benefits for as long as they can.

But most states will not be able to do that.

So some families that are currently receiving hundreds of dollars a month in benefits will soon be receiving nothing…

A family of four on average receives $715 (£540) per month, according to CBPP, which breaks down to a little less than $6 (£4.50) per day per person.

The states administer the programmes, with much of the funding coming from the federal government.

Several states have pledged to use their own funds to cover any shortfall, however the federal government has warned that they will not be reimbursed.

There are certain states that will get hit far harder than others.

For example, in New Mexico a whopping 21 percent of the entire population is on food stamps…

In terms of state population proportions, New Mexico is the state most dependent on SNAP, with 21 percent, or 451,200, of its residents claiming food stamps in 2024. It is followed by Louisiana and Oregon, where 18 percent get benefits.

Those numbers are staggering.

Nearly one out of every five people in Oregon and Louisiana is on food stamps, and more than one out of every five people in New Mexico is on food stamps.

I think that we will probably see the most chaos in large urban areas such as New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.

When people get hungry, they also tend to get very emotional.

And the fact that EBT benefits are being cut off just before the holidays is just going to intensify the emotions that people are now feeling…

Another said, ‘Cutting off EBT during the holidays is heartless & telling people “just get a job” behind these food stamps is crazy. AINT NOBODY HIRING. People been getting LAID OFF by the THOUSANDS. Y’all are evil.’

‘If you’ve never had to survive on food stamps you don’t understand what’s about to happen to many families next month,’ agreed a third.

The gap between the wealthy and the poor has never been wider, and this crisis will only make things worse.

The vast majority of the country, and this is especially true for those that are poor, are just barely scraping by from month to month.

For example, CBS News just interviewed one man in Georgia that literally doesn’t know where his next meal will come from…

“I applied on Sept. 11,” he said. “They actually approved me that same day, but I didn’t find out until I got a letter in the mail later. I’ve been waiting for my food stamp card ever since—since around Sept. 20.”

Nearly a month later, he’s still waiting. Daryl says the delay has turned everyday living expenses into a day-by-day struggle.

“Groceries right now in my house are nonexistent,” he said. “My fridge is empty—just condiments. When I do get food, it’s just something for that day. I can’t even think about tomorrow.”

There are tens of millions of other Americans that are just like Daryl.

This is one of the reasons why I rant about the failures of our system so much.

All along the way, our system has failed men like Daryl.

But this is what happens when you make government the central pillar of your economy.

In one way or another, the vast majority of the population becomes dependent on the government.

In addition to food stamp benefits being cut off, if this government shutdown persists it is going to cause an enormous amount of economic pain in other ways as well…

Thousands of federal employees will also miss their first full paychecks this week, so services like TSA screenings and air traffic control operations could be further stunted if those workers stop showing up, as was the case during the 35-day partial shutdown that ended in early 2019.

“Things are about to get worse,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned in a floor speech late last week.

And that’s to say nothing of the Nov. 1 date that open enrollment begins for Affordable Care Act health plans. That’s when people will start to see just how much their premiums are set to skyrocket because insurers aren’t confident Democrats and Republicans will reach a deal to extend enhanced tax credits before they expire at the end of the year — a central point of conflict amid the partisan shutdown impasse.

Our founders intended for us to have a very limited federal government.

But instead we have the largest government in the entire history of the planet.

In the weeks ahead, millions of people will be clamoring for their government benefits.

If they do not get them, they will become very, very angry.

The stage has been set for the sort of civil unrest that I have been writing about for a very long time.

Hopefully an agreement to end the government shutdown will be reached and we will be given a reprieve.

Because I don’t think that anyone is eager to see rioting, looting and violence in major cities all over the nation.

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